Pneumatic tires for passenger cars typically have a symmetrical internal construction; the symmetric being centered on the lateral center, or equatorial plane, of the tire. It is desirable to design pneumatic passenger tires so as to enhance fuel efficiency (minimize rolling resistance) of the vehicle. However, desired improvement in minimizing tire rolling resistance, to be acceptable to the market, must not be at the expense of tire handling performance. While it is known to reduce the mass or weight of a tire in order to reduce the rolling resistance of the tire, achieving low rolling resistance while maintaining handling performance has proven to be problematic.